The Fast of the Ninth of Tevet

December 21, 2007 4 Comments »
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medieval-jew.jpg
a Medieval Jew carrying wine for the Sabbath

The other day I was reading an article that a good friend sent to me about the fast of the Ninth of Tevet. Although we don’t hold by it these days, according to Prof. Sid (Shnayer) Z. Leiman, “Scroll of Fasts: The Ninth of Tebeth,” Jewish Quarterly Review (n.s.) 74.2 (October 1983): 174-195, in the middle ages and earlier, Jewish communities would fast on the 9th and not on the 10th. Although this fact alone was pretty interesting, the reasoning and the contested and argued history of why this was decreed was truly amazing.One reason for the fast was to negatively commemorate the the birth of Yeshu (Jesus) and the begging of the Christian religion which had, especially in the Middle Ages, caused Jews so much pain and distress. As so many believe today, and far more people believed in Middle Ages, Yeshu was born on December 25. Today many historians put his birth date in the summer, but the decision to fast was based on the original assumption. It was figured out that December 25 in the year of his birth matched up with the Ninth of Tevet, thus the fast.

The second reason is far more intriguing to me. It seems that with the initial success of the apostles to bring new people into their religion came a lot of fear in the hierarchy of the Jewish community. Within the first few generation it was secretly decided that a knowledgeable Rav should infiltrate the clergy to the highest ranks in order to derail the conversion effort facing the Jews and refocus those efforts towards Pagans. Whether or not this actually happened, it could explain why Pagans were targeted for mass conversion. It was centuries before Jews were targeted all over Europe in the violent way that forced so many of our brethren to convert. When this Rav passed away, on the Ninth of Tevet, a fasting was enacted to mark his achievements in saving our people from possible extinction.

I love finding out random tidbits that I never knew about especially in our Medieval history. [Thanks MB (Jastrow)]



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A serial social entrepreneur, Dave Weinberg is the Founder and Executive Editor of Jewneric. Often tapped for his opinion on technology, Dave was listed in the “Top 50 Influential Personalities Online” by the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA). Dave lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife and two sons. You can follow Dave on Twitter @weinberg81.
  • David Gertler

    From reports that I’ve heard relating to the second reason, that “knowledgeable Rav” was known among his friends in the Jewish high court as Shaul. When he infiltrated, he changed his name to Paul. The story is recorded as Paul told it in the Christian Bible in the book of Acts of the Apostles. (To just read this story see chapter 9:1-22.)

  • http://www.deadair.tv Moshe Glasser

    I also heard this. Though it is discounted by the majority of serious Jewish historians, it has a lot of hay and is generally considered fact by many in what may be called the “ultra-Orthodox” community. My own rebbe told me that the “Shaul” that Dave mentioned above is the Tannaitic sage Abba Shaul, an oft-quoted rabbi in the Mishna. Apparently, the work telling this story only dates to the 17th or 18th century, so we would have to match up accounts from this man to when the debate of the Tevet fast. Even if it is a myth, the existence of it is fascinating – we would prefer to have some idea of control over the development of Christianity than just staying out of its way (as we have unsuccessfully been trying to do for 2000 years).

  • Paul A. Edenfield

    Saul Libermann’s essay “Shkiin: A Few Words on Some Jewish Legends, Customs, and Literary sources Found in Karaite and Christian Works,” has the following notice of interest to this discussion:

    “A Karaite author of the ninth century condemns the Jewish custom of burning incense and exchanging gifts on the tenth of Teveth. In another place, the same writer relates that the Jews offer incense and light candles. Although he gives no date for the second custom, it is almost certainly the same day as the first.

    “Now according to Jewish tradition, Jesus was born on the ninth of Teveth: that is, the day before these strange ceremonies were performed.”

    “We can find confirmation of this unusual custom in a Christian work of the latter half of the sixth century. In Antonini Placentini Itinerarium, par. 30 (Gildemeister edition p. 21), we read that the Jews assembled, burned incense, lit candles and exchanged gifts on the first day after the birthday of Jesus.

    “This striking coincidence proved the authenticity of the custom beyond a doubt, for it is inconceivable that two such different sources would invent the same story.”

    It is typical to assume historic hostility and incompatibility between Jewish and Christian communities (see Boyarin’s comments about “gatekeeping” in his book Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity), but I wonder if the everyday reality of these communities was more complex than we remember them to be.

    — Paul Edenfield

  • http://www.geniusrocket.com Dave Weinberg

    Paul,

    thank you for bringing these sources to our attention. I appreciate your comments.

    Dave